Miko Youkai
by Silver Shoelaces
Summary: There is something wrong with the slayer village; it is under youkai attack! Will the miko Zenkawa Yoshimoto make it in time to save the Demon Slayers? Why is it that this hanyou is even a miko? This story starts at about Inu-Yasha book 9.
1. Zenkawa Yoshimoto

Disclaimer: The only character I own as of yet in this story is the Miko.

Prologue

* * *

A young woman wearing miko robes approached the nearby edge of the village silently. Her black hair shone with the moonlight as she walked past the villagers, acknowledging them with a small smile that didn't completely fit her sad face. They grinned back, bowing profusely, their noses almost touching the wet earth. She laughed to herself, but managed to keep her face straight.

She had stopped by this village at about nightfall because had sensed the aura of a youkai that was apparently destroying the lives of the villagers. The youkai had demanded that if a single person had stopped working while he was awake, they would be eaten alive. The villagers would have had her wait until the nocturnal demon was asleep, but she couldn't have that. She didn't want a single other villager to die from the hands of that despicable youkai, and-

Suddenly, a pack of children swarmed over her, catching her by surprise and interrupting her thoughts. They all started yelling at once at the top of their lungs, so she could only catch some of what they were saying.

"Do you have to leave, Miko-san?"

"Remain here, Miko-san!"

"Please don't go!"

"We need you!"

"Stay in the village forever, Miko-san!"

The young miko looked at them sadly. "I wish I could stay here forever. You are such kind children. However, I am afraid I must leave. I have sensed the aura of a dangerous group of youkai, and they are headed straight for the slayer village! I assume that many of the slayers are absent, and don't know of the threat!"

A man was desperately trying, and failing admirably, to compel the children back to bed, as humans generally prefer to sleep during the night. He looked at the miko in intermingled shock and admiration. "You mean you're off to slay another youkai, without even so much as a reward?"

"Of course. These four shards of the Shikon no Tama are reward enough. I can claim a reward from some other village when I am hungry, but for now, my stomach must wait. There are youkai to exterminate." The miko bowed. "Sayonara."

As she ran off into the distance, something in the man's head slid into place. The miko had told him that she was from the slayer village. She had reassured him that because of her father's unusual heritage, he was a youkai-exterminator houshi. He had taught her both the ways of the youkai-exterminator and of the miko, and warned her that the Shikon no Tama, the Jewel of Four Souls, the very jewel that had originated from her village, must not under any circumstances fall into the hands of a youkai. If it did, the whole of Japan might be destroyed. He smiled to himself, watching the children drift off to sleep one by one. He sure was glad that there were noble mikos and slayers in the world so the children could sleep soundly at night, unafraid of youkai terrorists or monsters.

The miko, Zenkawa Yoshimoto, smiled to herself. Those children were cute, and it was a pleasure to work for them. Still, it was a bit sad how easily she was able to fool the villagers. She looked up at the sunrise, and tied a bandana over her head. The bandana seemed to swell with two growths on either side of her head. She hated to tie up her ears like that, and it was painful, but it was necessary to pass as human or she risked death. She hoisted her pack onto her shoulders, made sure the shards of Shikon no Tama were secure, and set off at a run.

She may have lied about sensing youkai, but she still had to hurry. She hadn't sensed them; she had smelled them, and there was a dangerous hanyou on a bloodlust. She was too late already for the village; she knew that from the start of the evening. However, maybe, just maybe, she could destroy the hanyou before it destroyed her kin. She may have been a hanyou, but that didn't mean she would just abandon her family.

A/N: The name of my original character, miko/demonslayer/youkai Zenkawa Yoshimoto, was created through 20000-names dot com. Her "last" name (in Japan, it would be the first name) means good river, and her first name means origin of joy. At least, those were the intended meanings. Please, someone, correct me if I'm wrong.


	2. A Youkai Youkai Exterminator?

Inu-Yasha sniffed the air, confused. There was a youkai fast approaching. No, that wasn't it. She smelled human, too. He corrected himself. There was a hanyou fast approaching! This hanyou was strange, though. He didn't smell any demonic sense of confidence from her. All he smelled was a bit of noble confidence and determination. He realized her mood smelled just like Kagome's when he was last fighting Sesshomaru.

Inu-Yasha looked up and realized that his three comrades were staring at him. Oh, he must have been zoning out! He cursed himself for his stupidity, and glared at them. "Yeah?"

Miroku laughed. "You don't have to be tough. I sensed it too. There is a miko heading this way."

Kagome looked shocked. "Is it Kikyou?"

Inu-Yasha looked at her strangely. "No. I didn't smell a miko. That's why it's so strange. I smell a hanyou. If it were Kikyou, I would smell the scent of bones and burial soil, remember?"

Suddenly, there was a scream from the trees overhead. "Hanyou! Get away from those humans!" A woman wearing a yellow patterned bandanna over her head and a luxurious set of miko's robes dropped down between Inu-Yasha and Kagome. Her bandanna seemed to swell with two small lumps on either side of the top of her head.

"Why," retorted Inu-Yasha, "you wanna kill them, **hanyou**?"

"Never," replied Yoshimoto calmly. "I need the assistance of the miko who you are with, and I don't think it would be appropriate to kill her, or the houshi. Now shoo."

Inu-Yasha stammered, completely taken aback and at a loss for words. He had never been insulted like that by a hanyou before.

"So, miko-sama," Yoshimoto bowed respectfully. "Would you help me? It takes too long to purify the shards of the Shikon no Tama by myself. My youki keeps on getting in the way, and I need to hurry. My comrades are in urgent danger. I trust these to you."

Yoshimoto slipped the shards from her pouch and poured them into Kagome's hand. "Please keep these safe until I return. If I don't, by all means, keep them." Yoshimoto turned, and was gone in an instant.

"What was that all about?" she wondered aloud, glancing at the purified shards of the Shikon no Tama resting peacefully in her hand. "It's not every day that a woman that you've never met before just runs up to you, lends you one of the things you've been searching for, compliments you, and runs away, all in the same minute."

"That youkai was strange, Kagome," said Inu-Yasha, losing patience with her. "It didn't take **your** pitiful reasoning to work it out. That was a hanyou, anyway."

"A hanyou?" Miroku asked, confused. "Her aura felt like that of a miko!"

"Look!" cried Shippo suddenly.

"Shippo, don't just shove your way into our conversation!" growled Inu-Yasha.

"No, look at all the youkai! Up in the sky!" He pointed upward for emphasis.

Kagome looked where Shippo was pointing. "He's right! Wow..."

"We'd better follow them, and see where they are going, then," Miroku commented.

"Yeah." responded Inu-Yasha dryly. "That sounds like a good idea. Especially since it's the only thing we can do."

* * *

Yoshimoto leapt from tree to tree as if her very life depended on it. In fact, many lives _did_ depend on her speed and agility. If she was going to save Sango, Kohaku, and the rest of the Exterminators, she had to act quickly. _She_ could both sense and smell the youkai, and that was its master's downfall. She sensed a powerful creature. However, the powerful one wasn't the one she smelled. It was a distraction from the real foe, its only ability being its ability to appear to exert more power than it had. She appeared at the castle, wondering if she was too late, and looked around at the situation. Kohaku, the child, was raising his throwing sickle, his eyes glowing from possession. As he threw the weapon, she leapt in front of its path toward his elders, and braced herself, drawing her arms up into an x-shape in front of her chest. A sharp pain stabbed into her right arm, but she ignored it as she grabbed onto the chain the sickle was attached to. She gave it a yank, inadvertently digging the sickle deeper into her flesh, but it was no longer in his possession. 

Yoshimoto pulled the sickle out of her arm, discarding it on the ground as she ran up to Kohaku, drew her shinai and gave him a good jab to the head. He fell, unconcious. "He's a youkai!" she cried, pointing and throwing an untransformationseal at the lord of the castle. The slayers and servants both looked at her in shock before they noticed that he had now turned into a spider youkai. The youkai grinned evilly andstarted growing, metamorphinginto a giant spider, shocking many of the servants and Exterminators alike. Yoshimoto turned to Sango, the only teenage girl there.

"Sango," she whispered, "I'm going to take care of Kohaku, okay? I'll bring him back to your village."

"You know where it is?" Sango asked incredulously. "Only the Youkai Exterminators know its true location!"

"Yes, I know. I **am** a Youkai Exterminator." Yoshimoto leapt to Kohaku's side, and lifted him up onto her shoulder. "Sango, don't you remember me?" Yoshimoto turned to leave. Suddenly, she turned, and not a moment too soon, either. A stray throwing sickle rocketed at her, and she ducked over Kokaku to protect him. She felt the pain on her ears lessen, and a small breeze over the top of her head.

"Sango, I have to go. Kohaku is probably in shock; he was just possessed for the purpose of murdering his family. I am going to bring him back to the village. There was a group of people heading somewhere around there, and they had a miko there. I sensed that she was pure of heart. In fact, she smelled like the late Kikyo-sama. I think she is Kikyo-sama's reincarnation."

Yoshimoto bowed her head, her ears twitching slightly, gathered up Kohaku, and ran off into the forest without another word. Sango just stared. She didn't trust that person. She couldn't believe that one of the Youkai Exterminators was a youkai. She had thought Kirara was the only youkai that had joined the Youkai Exterminators.

Sango pushed back her thoughts. The most imminent danger right now is the demon in front of me...

* * *

Yes, my chapter is painfully short. Deal with it, and I'll make it longer later. 


End file.
